Let’s pretend a lovely summer is underway!!

It’ll be raining all day again today, though, and then here in Ohio, we will be gearing up for our heatwave.

The 4th of July is supposed to be not only rain, but thunderstorms, and for the whole upcoming week, the temperatures will be in the mid-90s Fahrenheit.

Each day now I just feel so blessed to have this Central AC, gang. It’s incredible, to think that This Old House is 125 years old and this is the first time it ever had air conditioning.

And when I think they gave it to me for FREE. Wow.

Okay.

Even though it was raining off & on all evening, we did indeed have our fireworks here last night in Crazeysburg.

They did a beautiful job. Although I didn’t go over to the actual ball park, where they were doing a bunch of festive stuff before the fireworks. I was exhausted from the humidity, and working my shift, doing all the grocery shopping in town, putting everything away when I got home, then making dinner, etc.

And I didn’t want to walk all the way over to the park just to find out it had been postponed because of the rain.

But, anyway. I have a perfectly clear view of the fireworks from my house. Still, it does sort of lose a little something when the fireworks go off before it’s really the 4th of July…

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So, Valerie had great news regarding her hand!

She got the stitches out and the doctor was really happy with her progress. So they’ve scheduled the surgery for her other hand on July 13th. Yay!

So it is almost over, and she will be able to get back to painting and drawing reasonably soon.

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The Rolling Stones released another track from the upcoming album, Foreign Tongues.

I not only like this track a lot, but I like that this is only an audio track. I haven’t been a fan of the Stones’ videos for many years. (Those videos target a much younger audience than me, and I’m guessing it’s working. But I just don’t like watching them.) (I also can’t stand the cover image on the new album. But, you know, they probably figure they won me over 54 years ago, let’s target someone else now.)

Anyway. Here’s “Divine Intervention”:

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So that workshop on Thursday from the Indie Authors Alliance, regarding book promotion for authors —

Wow, was it depressing. Totally stressful. I finally felt some relief when another writer posted in the chat that the workshop was really depressing…

Anyway. It was worth taking it, I learned a lot. But, wow, gang, publishing and everything that went along with it, has changed so drastically since the Internet and self-publishing kind of wiped out the traditional small presses.

In the not-so-long-ago old days, the publisher, even the small presses, did everything for you once the book was ready to come out. They arranged your readings and book signings– they simply told you where to show up and when (even if you had to go out of town, or overseas, for it). They took care of your PR, arranged your interviews — either Internet radio or they’d send you a Q &A to fill out, and then arrange for an interview for you “in print” (online) drawn from the Q & A.

Now, it seems like only the major houses do that stuff. So even if you’re not self-publishing, if you’re with an Indie press, you have to do a ton of stuff on your own just in hopes that your book will even get noticed.

Since my first book came out in 1999, I must have sold, all titles totaled, close to 200,000 print books worldwide — not including eBooks or my self-published books. Which were incredible numbers for a literary erotica writer/editor. But now I am starting back at square one. ( And I tell you, I am so grateful that the publisher I am currently with put together such an outstanding cover. It definitely gets people’s attention.)

But there is SO MUCH online AI scamming that you have to watch out for if you’re releasing a new book. I must delete at least 10 of those fake AI inquiries every single day.

In the event you’re new to the blog– my new novel, The Curse of Our Profound Disorder, is coming from Parisian Phoenix Publishing in September!! You can pre-order it HERE.

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However!! That said–

On Thursday evening, I also listened to a live talk with Eileen McKusick, sponsored by Simon Parkes’ Connecting Consciousness group.

Wow, that was really interesting and very uplifting. Although it had nothing to do with publishing:

“For 30 years, Eileen has been exploring the human biofield – the electromagnetic field that surrounds and animates the body – and how sound can bring it into harmony. Her work bridges the gap between traditional healing arts and contemporary science, offering a grounded, evidence-informed approach to health and human potential.”

Here’s a sample of one of the many things she does:

Nervous System Reset (7 mins):

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Okay.

Since I didn’t post anything yesterday, here’s this from Friday.

More about Johnny Depp’s new art offering– “3AM BLOOM”

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And the rest of the “here’s this’s” are basically all connected to the Bad Seeds tour.

From George Vjestica, heading to the show in Italy, which was last night, and which appeared to be another one of those off-the-charts shows:

Here’s Warren Ellis. He appears to be at the airport? Leaving Greece (in the heatwave) and heading to Italy? Not sure, really — but he is wearing a Harbor Freight hat!!

And here’s this, too — to underscore how hot it was??

I found this photo on Facebook, but I don’t know which show it actually came from:

And here’s the set list from the show in Italy last night:

Here’s Nick Cave in Italy:

Here’s a shot from the jumbo screen last night — but a number of people posted videos of this — where a very happy young boy was onstage with Nick:

And here’s this!

The Bad Seeds will be in Belgium tomorrow. You can buy tickets here!

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And that is it for today.

And I still have 3 and 1/2 hours before I have to head to town for my shift! I’ll be with the retired Chaplain, so it should be a very thought-provoking evening. She usually has so many interesting things to talk about, and the time flies.

But I also want to add that yesterday morning, that new client of mine — the one who lives on that beautiful property surrounded by all those incredibly tall trees– wow, did we have a nice time. She has had quite a life. So very different from mine, and yet we have so much in common. (She’s only about 6 years older than me.)

Anyway, okay!

Have a great Saturday, wherever you are in the world.

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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And since I’m determined to behave as if we’re finally having a wonderful, FUN summer around here–

Here’s this again!!!

Breakfast-listening music!!

From the CD collection, Rockin’ Down the Block (1987) which I always start listening to when it’s summertime —

The Rivingtons, “Papa Oom Mow Mow,” from 1962!! Enjoy, gang.